![SETsquared Bath Innovation Centre [University of Bath]](http://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59ad4c7ef14aa16da6b98425/1543483421246-WGI6RKDJ139AWS7J59TB/ss-bath.png)
Member News | Greener have secured over £140,000 of pre-seed funding
Sustainability matchmaking for your food & drink business
Congratulations to Bath-based new SETsquared members and cleantech startup Greener, who have successfully raised £142,000 in pre-seed funding – with part coming from the Innovate UK Sustainable Innovation Fund. Greener reached their ambitious pre-seed funding target just ahead of their pre-launch account creation availability at the end of April.
Who is Greener?
New to SETsquared Bath, Greener is all about making sustainability accessible and mass market for all businesses. Greener’s matchmaking solution acts to do the work of an expert sustainability team for each and every one of their users. Greener minimises the downside (time/money/lack of expertise) and maximises the upside (great partners/sustainable solutions/intuitive use), making it easier than ever before for small businesses to find sustainability partners and solutions, and integrate them into their own operations. This results in SMEs having access to a tool which can help them build genuinely sustainable supply chains around their operations through connecting with great matches.
Innovate UK Sustainable Innovation Fund
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £191 million to fund single and collaborative research and development projects as part of the Sustainable Innovation Fund over the next two years. The aim of these competitions is to help all sectors of the UK rebuild after the effects of COVID-19. The Sustainable Innovation Fund is funding 1,103 projects, 1189 UK businesses and totalling over £130 million in support across the UK. Innovate UK Executive Chair Dr Ian Campbell said:
“In these difficult times we have seen the best of British business innovation. The pandemic is not just a health emergency but one that impacts society and the economy.
“Greener, along with every initiative Innovate UK has supported through this fund, is an important step forward in driving sustainable economic development. Each one is also helping to realise the ambitions of hard-working people.”
Greener co founder and CEO Dan Yates said, “This award will enable us to conduct some extensive R&D, and bring our vision for a greener future to market, as well as allow the team to commit fully to the project. It goes without saying how much this means to us, and we are already making fantastic progress.”
Pre-launch account creation now live!
Since announcing additional private investment in April, Dan said:
“The team are absolutely thrilled that we're able to build this platform which we think is so important. It's taken a lot of hard work to get to this stage, and we're only just getting started!
The next few weeks are going to bring a lot of updates for Greener, including opening up our platform to pre-launch account creation. This will allow users to start building their profiles in anticipation to our full launch at a later date.
This stage is going to be really useful for us to conduct internal testing, as well as allowing us to see where we need to focus our user acquisition. The goal is to build a holistic, 1 stop shop for sustainability matchmaking, so the more information we have about who exactly we need to add to the platform, the better.”
You can find out more about Greener and follow their journey here.